Aka Amy

"Can I help?" Tess asked. "I feel like I should help."

She was standing at the door to the little kitchen looking sort of awkward as she watched me work. I was at the stove, where the rice was coming along fine and I had two pieces of seasoned pork frying in a pan.

"You don't have to help," I replied. "I can handle it, it's not that hard. But if you really want to do something, you could chop the onion and pepper?"

Tess nodded and moved into the kitchen. We had one medium-sized sweet onion and a large orange bell pepper. The cutting board was already out, along with a couple knives I found in one of her drawers. There was a sharpener in there too and I'd already made sure there was a good edge on the blades, so I could get some nice thin slices from the pork after it was cooked.

She was using the counter behind me, and as she got started I told her "We only need about half the onion and half of the pepper? They don't need to be diced super fine, but not too big either?"

"Got it," she replied, and soon enough she was at work cutting them up. It sounded like she was going slowly and meticulously.

I had a plate nearby for when the pork was finished, then I'd rest that while I was stir-frying the veggies. I also picked up some bean sprouts, spices, a bit of cooking oil, and a little jar of pre-made sauce. It wasn't going to be a grand fancy meal, but it should be pretty good.

When the pork was done I transferred it to the plate then turned off the burner for the moment. I was just about to ask Tess how she was coming with the vegetables, when she let out a yelp and I heard the knife clatter to the floor.

I spun around, "Are you ok?"

She was standing with her left hand held to her chest and her right hand overtop. Her eyes were wide and her face was pale, and I could already see blood running down her arm from somewhere on her left hand. It was staining her shirt and dripping on the floor.

I had no idea how bad it was but seeing the panicked look on her face told me it was bad. I used to be really good at first-aid but I hadn't renewed my certificate in seven or eight years and you forget that stuff if you aren't using it and don't stay up on the training. One thing I could remember was that shock could make even minor injuries dangerous.

Between the amount of blood I could see and the way Tess's face had gone completely pale, I was scared it wasn't a minor injury and that she might be going into shock.

I don't remember saying it, or even thinking it, but maybe it happened because of the emotional connection between us and the strong sense of concern bordering on fear I felt. Whatever triggered it, before I could consciously react the goddess's magic kicked in. And it was almost like something out of the video game again, as if I really was Amethyst the cleric doing my job as a healer. Golden light sparkled and swirled around Tess's hands for a second or two, then it faded.

She saw it as well, and her eyes widened even more.

"Just relax ok? Don't panic," I told her in as calm a voice as I could manage. I gently took her hands in mine and guided her to the sink, where I started rinsing her hands under cold water.

The blood washed away but there was no longer any wound. I used some paper towels to pat her hands dry and checked again, but there wasn't even a scar or a mark on her.

Tess stared wide-eyed at her left hand, she slowly turned it around as she inspected it.

"It's all healed," she commented quietly.

I was still worried for her, I grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and guided her out of the kitchen. She sat down on the sofa and I handed her the water as I asked "How are you feeling? Any nausea or dizziness? Are you light-headed?"

Tess shook her head, "I'm ok. I was startled, it was... There was a lot of blood. But it's fine now."

She looked at her hand again, then at her top. There was an impressive blood stain on her t-shirt, but apart from that she did seem ok. The colour was returning to her face and her voice was sounding better again.

"Why don't you just wait here ok?" I suggested. "Have some water and just relax. If you start feeling dizzy or nauseous speak up though ok, let me know?"

"Ok Amy," she nodded. "Thank you."

I gave her a warm smile, then returned to the kitchen. There was some blood on the cutting board and on the floor, but she managed to get the veggies just about done before hurting herself. I gave them a close look to be sure, then took a few moments to clean up the blood and everything before I got back to work on dinner.

The rest of the process was thankfully uneventful, and about fifteen minutes later I emerged from the kitchen carrying two plates. Tess looked a lot better when I joined her in the living-room. She looked embarrassed, and she'd taken off the blood-stained shirt but otherwise she seemed fine now.

"Here we go," I said as I put the two plates down on the coffee table. "Stir-fried pork and veggies, on a bed of rice."

She smiled, "Thanks Amy. This looks and smells great."

Before we got started on the food we both got glasses of wine, then we sat together and enjoyed dinner.

As we ate, I glanced at her and commented "I hope this isn't offensive but um, is that why you don't do much cooking?"

Tess blushed, "Pretty much. I'm all thumbs in the kitchen. I'm either cutting myself or burning myself. Back when I lived with my folks, my mom wouldn't let me near the stove. She was convinced I'd burn the house down."

I gave her a warm smile and said, "I'm sure you could learn how to do it, but maybe with some supervision to start with. You don't seem clumsy out of the kitchen right? Maybe it's just because of lack of experience or something. Or maybe anxiety? Like a few bad experiences in the kitchen might have left you anxious of doing it again?"

"Maybe," she replied quietly. "Anyways, this is delicious Amy. Thanks a lot!"

I grinned, "You're welcome. I'm glad you like it."

To be honest it wasn't anything that special, it was a fairly easy meal to make. Especially since I cheated and bought the sauce in a jar. But I figured it was nice to have a proper home-made meal now and then, where at least most of the ingredients were fresh.

When we'd both finished dinner I told Tess to keep relaxing while I took care of the clean-up. There weren't any left-overs, but we had half an onion and half a pepper left. I wrapped them up and put them in the fridge, then washed the dishes. It was ten or fifteen minutes, and when I was done I moved back out to the living-room to join Tess again.

While I was doing the washing-up she'd picked up my staff. I'd brought it into the apartment along with the groceries, but I left it propped up in the corner by the front door. Tess had it resting across her lap on the sofa as she was closely inspecting it.

"I see you're studying that," I commented as I joined her. "What have you learned?"

She moved it out of the way so I could sit down beside her, then replied "Not much really. I don't know anything about wood carving, but this looks like really fine precision work. And I can't tell if the wood's been stained or if this is its natural colour? It looks and feels like it's really old though, like around where you'd hold it the wood seems almost polished smooth as if from centuries of handling."

I agreed, "I noticed that too. What do you make of the designs on it? Do you think those carvings are something suitable for the goddess? Or maybe this got pulled out of the video game?"

Tess shook her head, "I don't really know. I was looking to see if there were any runes, or any markings that matched stuff in granny's journal, but I haven't found anything."

She shifted it around and indicated one of the ends, "The way the ends are flattened into a sort of hexagonal shape might mean something though? Especially the way they're sort of pointed? It reminds me of the way some crystals form. Like quartz, or amethyst."

"I noticed that," I said with a blush. "I thought about quartz as well, but duh, I didn't even consider the obvious one. Now I wonder if this really is the goddess's staff?"

After a few moments to think it over, I asked "Do you think I should try and wish it away, send back to the goddess? I don't want to get on her bad side by stealing her staff."

Tess frowned as she looked thoughtful. Finally she replied "I don't really know Amy. I want to say no, I want to say you should keep it? I think if she gave it to you then it's not stealing. Maybe she wants you to have it? But I don't know if I'm right about that. I might just be leaning in that direction because I don't want it to disappear."

She admitted, "If it really is hers, then it's kind of an honour to see it and touch it."

She finally put the staff aside for now, she leaned over and propped it up in the corner between the sofa and love seat. Then she looked at her left hand again and commented, "Thanks again for fixing my hand. I was positive I needed to go to the hospital. I thought for sure I'd need stitches."

"It was nothing," I replied. "I mean it, I don't even remember asking or thinking or wishing it. I just remember feeling a wave of fear and worry, I knew you you were badly hurt and I was scared for you. Then suddenly magic golden healing energy."

Tess looked up at me and her eyes were filled with compassion and gratitude.

"I'm sorry I gave you such a scare," she said quietly. "I was pretty freaked out as well. Beyond the magic though, I really appreciate how you stayed calm and took charge and looked after me. I could have started panicking or freaking out or something, but you kept everything under control, and made sure I was comfortable and safe."

I leaned closer to her and slipped my arm around her as I said, "Don't worry about it Tess. Like I said before, I'm just glad you're ok."

Her arm wound around me as well as we sat cuddling together.

After a few moments she asked, "Are you worried about the magic happening without you asking for it?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it happened in this case. But yeah, I'm worried, and wondering about it."

Tess suggested, "It's possible you asked or wished that without realizing? Like if you were really upset seeing me standing there bleeding, maybe you did it sort of instinctively? Another possibility is it was subconscious, though that might just be the same thing. Either way, I just mean you might have wished it without consciously realizing."

I nodded again, "I suppose. I'm still a little worried about it. Like maybe the goddess is doing stuff without me asking for it, if she thinks it's something I need or want."

"I get it," she replied. "But if she's doing that, it's been really rare? As far as I know this would be the first time for sure, and there's only one other thing we're not even sure happened?"

"Right," I sighed. "We don't know for sure if Mike's been so accepting because that's just who he is, or if he's like that because of some kind of magical intervention."

After a few moments of thought Tess suggested, "You know, if she was going to do something like that? I'd have expected her to do it with your parents. I mean, forgive me if I'm wrong, but you've said you're only friends with Mike because you're roommates. If things went poorly with him the worst you'd have to deal with is moving out. Coming out to your parents had a lot more riding on it, and she didn't intervene there right? So maybe she didn't intervene with Mike either. Maybe that's just who he is."

I frowned as I thought that through. "Yeah, you make some good points actually. If she was going to do that with my roommate, why not do it with my folks too? They're way more important to me than him."

After another moment or two I shrugged and sighed, "We still don't really know the answers though. It's just speculation and guesswork."

Tess nodded in agreement, and the two of us were quiet again after that. We were still cuddling as we sat together on the sofa, and after a minute or two she asked, "Want to put on a movie or something?"

"Yeah ok," I nodded. "Actually that hike's starting to catch up with me. I'm feeling kind of lazy."

"Me too," she smiled as she reached for the TV remote.